Farm Start-Up Funding.

Greetings Permies,

Does anyone have some insight into what kinds of grants and other programs are available from government agencies to help with financing a new permaculture farm?

As an example, consider this website from the Missouri State Department of Agriculture: http://mda.mo.gov/abd/financial/

To any viewers who have their own farm, could you describe how you financed early stages of development, in your case?

Here's a group working to get funding for permaculture projects: http://www.wethetrees.com/

http://www.usda.gov/wps/portal/usda/usdahome?navid=KYF_GRANTS

I found this site to be informative I hope it helps

Say the word Farm in a bank, all the loan officers run away. The only worse word is Restaurant-they jump out the windows.

USDA loans can be secured if your credit rating is 620 or more.

My place is owner financed. No bank, just a handshake and some documentation we wrote up and signed. The former owner is good with me, I am good with her. I'll probably have it paid off before the end of next year rather than 2017 which the agreement shows. It's an older mobile home, 1972. Banks won't write paper for mobile homes built before 1977 or so. The only way this place would have sold was someone with cash or through owner financing.

I put $5000 on the table, the place was mine. Sale price: $45k. 3.7 acres of pasture with some trees, a fine garage, run in stall, fenced, cross fenced, well/septic/pole/driveway in place, and new appliances to boot. Previously the field was used to contain a horse. There were no crops or gardens, just a home in the country. It's up to me to turn it into something incredible, but that's what I wanted: a blank slate.
My house in town was also owner financed. My downpayment was $1600-cheaper than an apartment.

Seeds are cheap. If you are willing to wait a year or two you can have all the seed you need. Livestock can be had for a fine price. Permaculture does not need a great deal of expensive tools or investment in irrigation. Chickens don't need much of a coop. They'll sleep in the trees.

I was thinking, just this morning, about how folks with little resources could afford to get a farm going. It can be done, either alone or with a group of people. In the litigious society we live in, a group needs documentation, but the great advantage is division of labor and reduction of up front investment per person. Going it alone solves the hassles of contracts, rules, consensus and management by committee, but the financial burden is all yours.

Looking at the group idea I figure this place could comfortably sleep 10 people. This puts the initial investment within reach of plenty of people. $5k per person would purchase outright a place like I have. If a seller could be found willing to sell to a group or corporation with no track record, that $5k drops to a few hundred bucks each. Share meals, share the bills, share a room, share the workload, each person would have to cough up $100/week to cover all the bills and make progress getting a farm up and running. Each person would be on their own for transportation, personal needs/HBA, as well as a job/means to pay their share of the load.
10 people working together can get crops in the ground, cutting that grocery bill, gather lots of compostable material, cutting down operating costs, set up solar hot water, cutting the utility bill, and a hundred more projects in just a few months. It may be a couple of years before the enterprise can generate revenue, but it would be a chance to get things going when there is no other option.